Where have all the colored hulls gone?

by Don Finkle, RCR Yachts
As a kid in the ‘50s we learned that, “There are only two colors for a boat, white and black, and only a damn fool would paint his boat black.” Dark colors on wooden boats were not always a good idea because the sun would heat the paint and you could see the seams between planks.

Colored hulls became popular as soon as fiberglass boats came on the scene. Gelcoat could be made in virtually any color of the rainbow, and when laying up a hull, you started with spraying in the gelcoat. It was the same if you sprayed white or a color. In the 1970s, we had an explosion of colored hulls on new boats and some of those still actually look half-decent today.

What caused the change to what we have now, where the vast majority of boats are white? The composition of gelcoat had to be formulated to take out some of the materials that were considered hazardous environmentally. The new gels have excellent properties for blister resistance and so forth, but the colors fade more rapidly.

There are several reasons why builders hesitate to mold colored hulls—if they even do it at all—and they charge extra for them. You probably don’t know that almost every hull has some slight imperfections as they come out of the mold. They don’t throw away a whole hull or deck for these little things; they are patched at the factory.

Patching a colored hull is more difficult. The spray gun needs to be cleaned every time you change colors from one boat to the next, and the mold itself cleaned to remove any of the prior color.

Maybe the main issue is builders don’t like warranty claims resulting from problems with colored hulls after delivery, even if they are specifically excluded from warranty. The darker the color, the bigger the problem. Light grey has become a popular option because it holds up better.

So why do we see some beautiful dark blue boats being built today? If the color is important enough, you order the boat as you like it, understanding that you will be looking at a paint job down the road. Order the boat in your preferred color and someday have it painted the same.

The cost of a paint job is a large percentage of the cost of a $20,000 boat, but a small amount compared to the value of a $500,000 boat. Some people even order a white boat and have it painted right away, since paint has more luster and the color lasts far longer.